Twitter launches camera to compete with Instagram and Snapchat

After testing the feature for a while, Twitter is now rolling out its new integrated camera to both its Android and iOS mobile apps, allowing users a more immediate solution for taking shots or footage and directly tweeting them.

For users who have received the update, swiping left from the main timeline screen in the Twitter app will now land you on a dedicated camera screen that allows you to take a photo, video or live broadcast, and overlay it with text, hashtags or a location.

When posting from this new screen, the tweet will appear with an enlarged photo or thumbnail and display the related text below it; a first for Twitter.

There currently isn’t an option to upload existing media, so this new tweet format will only be showing imagery or footage taken directly via the app – no doubt a bid to encourage posters to cover news and live events as they occur.

While not all users have receive the updated feature but, according to Twitter’s own official tweet, it will be “rolling out to all of you over the next few days”.